Talk:Health Care-planks-GOP2008
The 2008 Platform Committee received public input through a website. Ultimately more than 13,000 comments were received and considered. The following is a sampling of those comments: (Christy - Birmingham, AL) 1V_hduWgoaw HEAL Alabama and former professional ski. (Larry - Columbia, SC) BJ1iHPdKsnA Address cronic disease. (Ike - Columbia, SC) t0m74tlqUAg Chamber of Commerce guy about healthy lifesytles. (Anonymous) ZrYKVYv9mYk Allow for market forces to play out for choices to people. (Nhpfcd - Portsmouth, NH) 7h0DIXqGl4I Cronic diseases increase the cost of business. Comments (D - Stuarts Draft, VA) We have GOT to find a way to make health care more affordable for the citizens and legal immigrants of this country. The people typically uninsured, or underinsured, are typically those most vulnerable to health issues: the very young and the old. Health care costs are out of control, so insurance premiums are out of control. Medicare has become a huge profit machine for many health care providers (Medicare needs to cut out per diems and pay strictly the costs incurred.). Medicaid's qualifying incomes are completely unrealistic. There are so many people living in poverty because of the current cost of living as it relates to basics like housing, food, and gas (there are still lots of places without mass transportation available), and yet don't qualify for Medicaid because of income level. (Jon - Twentynine Palms, CA) Start by implementing real tort reform. End federal involvement in health care. Can anyone really name one thing that government bureacracy has actually handled more efficiently than the private sector? Eliminate mandating that employers provide health insurance - again let the private sector decide. Individual health savings accounts and individual heath care insurance are solid approaches to minimizing federal government meddling in health care. (Paul - Sedalia, CO) The Republican Party should stand up for individual rights in medicine and should oppose any move towards Canadian-style “single-payer” plans or Massachusetts-style “mandated insurance”. These are all just variations of socialized medicine and simply results in rising costs, government rationing of care, and unhappy patients. Colorado Republicans were successful in stopping the Democrats' push towards socialized medicine in 2007-2008, and the national party can learn from them. Paul Hsieh, MD Sedalia, CO Co-founder Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM): www.WeStandFIRM.org (David - Houston, MN) Healthcare and Public Safety We believe that the only way to reduce healthcare costs is by introducing genuine market competition, eliminating government mandates and allowing people to own and control their own healthcare. The record shows socialized medicine and single payer schemes drive up medical costs and cause rationing of medical care. We believe that the most fundamental function of government is preserve and protect our persons and our property. (Rose - Austin, TX) Health care needs to stay in the hands of the private sector. Government interference/control would mean disaster for our superb (not kidding) system. Private sector needs to examine its relationship between doctors/hospitals and insurance companies, but all-in-all, we have an excellent system. Handing out free health care to any and all illeagals is not helping our system. Compassion is and always will be important and necessary; however, complete abuse of the system is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. No business would survive that, and we can't expect the tax payers to provide that. Our situation with obesity is only going to put more pressure on the system, and so the government might want to spend some part of our tax dollars on educating the public of what life will be like if things do not change for a large portion of our population. It needs to be drilled into them mercilessly, or it will not change, and the health care system will become more and more strained. My costs will continue to rise. This does not make me happy, as I tend to be much more responsible with my health, and that of my family. (Gary - Norwalk, IA) This really needs to be a separate topic. Medicare will go negative in cash flow within the next couple of years (if it is not already really there). Social Security is only a few years behind. These represent bigger problems than is generally perceived because not only will general revenues be needed to make up the shortfall, but the budget will be short already because we are used to spending the “surplus”. Paying for these two existing programs--supposedly “insurance” programs-- will use up most, if not all, of the revenues people are already talking about spending for additional health care initiatives. (Jerry - Warrensburg, MO) We need to make Medicare and medicaid secure. Seniors who have paid in all of their working lives do not need to be worried about their health care because congress plundered the social security system for many years. Eliminate waste and fraud by imposing strict penalties on the abusers, and let's see some high profile cases where Medicare abusers wind up in jail. It's about time we struck a cord of fear into the thieves who plunder the system. We need to control health care costs by prevention, rather than crisis treatments. Expose the fraud and allow the American people to deal with the unscrupulous characters. Make fraud cases very high profile. (Michael - Hillsboro, KS) As a physician, Medicare is a good program. All citizens should have Medicare or opt-out with evidence of sufficient private insurance or funds to pay for care. There are so many people who risk and end up going bankrupt because they don't have the discipline to buy health insurance. Large and small companies pay enormus costs on health care for their employees. If the cost of health insurance was shared, business and workers would be healthier. I hate seeing people die from prevenable disease because they are too cheap to spend money on preventive care. If States didn't require liability insurance on automobiles these same people would be driving uninsured. (Michael - Ellensburg, WA) Aggressively promote a national campaign so that everyone takes a very cheap vitamin D supplement, at least 1,000 IU/day. This will slash disease costs and much human suffering from cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease, multiple sclerosis, and osteoporosis. If a government really wants to control health care costs, and not just talk about it, this would be a very good, easy first step towards health promotion. Our health situation is as dire as polio was before the vaccine was introduced in 1955. Aggressively promote the use of intensive lifestyle changes for diabetes and heart disease. Research studies have already shown that this is the most effective way (both in terms of costs and results) to gain health freedom. Small scale lifestyle interventions where people stay in a house for a week and learn a new diet and lifestyle are working miracles for people. Making these lifestyle interventions reimbursable by Medicare would make it possible for people to seriously do this on a much broader scale. It would save a ton of money and a hundreds of thousands of lives every year as well. We pay a lot of money for open heart surgery, which is a very radical procedure, and we won't spend a dime to help people change their diet and lifestyle. We need to change this, as it has been shown to be very effective treatment for diabetes and heart disease. Health care in America needs to be lead by independent scientists and doctors who have a proven track record of integrity, and success in reversing serious health conditions using diet and lifestyle interventions. It is time to stop pandering to drug companies and allowing their money to dictate how we make decisions. It is time for America be given the liberty so that they can be told the truth of what it really takes to be healthy and to avoid sickness and disease. We know the basic answers and we need to speak them loud and clear and over and over and over until people start getting it.